1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intelligent refrigeration unit designed to store and dispense beverages such as beer.
2) Description of Related Art
In modern times, the craft beers and microbreweries have become popular with consumers. With this movement the use of cans has rapidly increased. One study places the number of companies that are using cans to package their beverages at over 500. However, there is a movement to reduce the number of cans being produced and to reduce waste by supplying glass bottles that can be refilled from breweries. Commonly these glass bottles are called “growlers”.
It is believed that in the 1800s, fresh beer was carried from local bars and pub to homes in a metal pail. These pails were pressurized by CO2 and when the beverage sloshed in the pail, it created a “growling” sound as the liquid moved and CO2 escaped from the pail. In modern times, a growler is glass bottle that can include rubber lined caps, ceramic tops with a O-ring or seal, or other lid designed to prolong freshness. While a growler will keep beer fresh for one to two weeks unopened, once a growler is opened, the beer will only stay fresh for about 36 hours before it goes flat.
When the growler is initially filled, there is a disadvantage in that air can be in the head space of the grower. Headspace is a volume of about 5% of the volume of the glass bottle where gas is disposed. Other glass bottle includes fill lines to prevent filling the growler to the top of the opening. Air in the headspace causes the beer to oxidation making the beer undesirable. Counter-pressure filling the headspace with CO2 can reduce the chance of oxidation and has been shown to provide shelf lives of 4-6 weeks from unopened growlers. Some beers stored in 32-ounce swing-top growlers under cold, dark refrigeration have lived upward of 3-6 months without trace of oxidation making the present invention advantageous.
In response to the popularity of the craft beer, brewpubs, and microbreweries, growler filling stations have been opened such as the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 9,073,741 which discloses, generally, a system for dispensing beverages, including, beer into containers, glasses, growlers, and the like. One such bottle is shown in United States Application Publication 20130032564 that discloses thermal metal containers principally for use in the purchase of beer from a brewery or pub off of a tap.
In the industry, there is a need to provide for a growler that can allow the storage of the beverage (e.g. beer) for a lengthy period of time much past the 24-36 hours currently possible. While the pressurized growler substantially lengthens the storage time, once the growler is taken home and opened the benefits of the pressurized system are lost. An attempt to lengthen the time that the beer stays fresh has been attempted through recharging caps such as United States Patent Application 2014/0262899, however, the cap needs to be used each time the growler is opened. Another attempt to preserve freshness is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 9,193,577.
However, a problem for which much attention should be spent is how to keep a growler's contents fresh, refrigerate the growler, dispense the contents, and allow for multiple growlers to be stored, preserved, refrigerated, and dispensed from a single unit.
Additionally, there is an inconvenience with growlers stored at home in that when leaving work or other location and returning home, the amount of a beverage in a growler is not known without physically being home. There for it would be advantageous to have a way to retrieve the volume and type of beverage in a growler from a remote location. It would also be advantageous to be able to collect, store and retrieve information related to the contents of a growler, the length of time between re-fills, the temperature of the beverage, the number of pours from a single growler and other such statistic information. Such information would also be advantageous to be aggregated for statistical analysis for vendors, user and the like.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide for a storage and dispending unit that preserves the contents of a growler as well as keeps the content refrigerated.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a multi growler unit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data collection, storage and reporting unit to collect, store and report data related to the storage and dispensing of a beverage from a growler.